John Swinney’s 19th budget lacks ambition for Scotland, and it fails to deal with the structural issues that are created by this tired Scottish National Party Government, which can be resolved only by changing the Scottish Government in May. While he brags about his £6-a-year tax cut for the lowest paid, a million Scots—[Interruption.]

Let us hear Mr Sarwar.

While he brags about his £6-a-year tax cut for the lowest paid, a million Scots, including nurses, teachers and police officers, face being forced to pay more, all while his Government wastes billions of pounds. That is a tax cut worth 11p a week for the lowest earners, while thousands of nurses pay £400 more and thousands of teachers pay £600 more than they would in the rest of the United Kingdom—even his own tax adviser says that this is a political stunt. Why does John Swinney believe that someone earning £33,500 has the broadest shoulders and, therefore, should pay more tax in Scotland?

I will explain to Mr Sarwar that a band 6 nurse who is at the bottom of the scale will take home an additional £1,994 after tax, compared with someone in the same band in England. A qualified teacher at the bottom of the band will take home £6,365 more after tax in Scotland than the equivalent teacher in England. Those are the facts for Mr Sarwar. A band 6 nurse living in Scotland will take home—[ Interruption .] Mr Sarwar asked me about nurses, and I am giving him an answer about nurses. A band 6 nurse at the bottom of the scale will take home an additional £1,994 because they live in Scotland and not England, and a teacher in Scotland will take home £6,365 more than they would in England. That is because this Government delivers fair pay for public service workers.

John Swinney deliberately focuses on the lowest band and ignores the thousands of nurses and teachers who are paying more tax in Scotland.

Although a million Scots face paying more, the 19th John Swinney budget does not even try to deal with the issues that are leading to billions of pounds being wasted and opportunities being squandered. There is no plan to deal with delayed discharge, meaning that taxpayers pick up a bill of half a billion pounds; there is no plan to deal with Scotland’s prison system, while people pay £1 billion and rising for the new Barlinnie prison in Glasgow; and there is no plan to grow Scotland’s economy, costing us £800 million. All those plans can only come about with a change of Government in May. John Swinney cannot solve the big issues that he has created—

Let us hear one another.

There is an urgent new issue that risks the future of thousands of businesses. Why has there been no pause to business rate revaluations? They have meant that many businesses face a 400 per cent increase—far greater than any rate relief—and risk their survival and the loss of thousands of jobs. Why has there been no pause to those revaluations?

I notice that Mr Sarwar has moved the subject on from the tax position of teachers and nurses, because I have completely demolished the arguments that he has put in front of me today.

On the subject of business rates, the business rates position is a product of two elements: the independent valuation that is undertaken and the policy decisions that are taken by the Scottish Government. The independent valuation, which was agreed to across the Parliament, has taken its course. In policy terms, this Government has put in place a 15 per cent relief to retail, hospitality and leisure premises in mainland Scotland that are liable for the basic or intermediate property rate; we have expanded the 100 per cent relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses on our islands; we have maintained the small business bonus scheme; and, crucially, we have put in place a package of business rates reliefs worth an estimated £864 million in the forthcoming financial year. That is the Government investing to support business and the economy, alongside a range of other measures in the budget that I hope that Mr Sarwar will support.

In the words of his old pal Alex Neil, the First Minister is talking “rubbish”. He has failed to deal with the serious question of—[Interruption.]

Let us hear Mr Sarwar.

—revaluations that will see some businesses being forced to pay 300 or 400 per cent higher amounts, which risks the survival of those businesses. He completely ignored that question.

The one bit of good news is that Scots do not have to put up with his failure for much longer: in May, they can choose a new Government. The Scottish National Party has spent the past 19 years—[ Interruption .]

Sorry, Mr Sarwar—it is somewhat noisy. Let us hear one another.

It is okay—we will say cheerio to Shona Robison in four months’ time too.

The SNP has spent the past 19 years failing to deal with the real issues that are facing Scotland. It has nothing new to deal with the crisis created on its watch: nothing to deal with the hundreds of thousands of Scots who are stuck on national health service waiting lists; nothing to deal with the drug deaths emergency that is killing hundreds of people a year; nothing to address the homelessness crisis that is leaving 10,000 kids stuck in temporary accommodation; nothing to help businesses, wages or the economy to grow; and nothing for the thousands of our amazing young people who are missing out on the education that they deserve.

John Swinney has had 20 years. He has had his chance and he has failed, has he not?

I do not think that today is the day that Mr Sarwar is in a strong enough position to accuse me of talking rubbish. This morning, a health campaigner raised publicly the fact that she has requested a formal apology from Mr Sarwar after a campaign leaflet—which I have in front of me—was posted to thousands of homes around the country with a false quotation in support of his party in it. The campaigner who was falsely quoted asked a fair question:

“If they’ve written that out of nowhere, what else have they lied about?”

So, I do not think that Mr Sarwar is in a position to say to me anything about the budget. Not only has he misled the public in a campaign leaflet—a member of the public has called him out—but he is wrestling with Reform to try to get into second place in the opinion polls. Mr Sarwar knows that it is all over. It is finished. The dream is gone. He is in Opposition and we are going to stay in government.